Three tips for starting a business with Kickstarter

You don’t have to bootstrap or get a loan to launch your business. You can also crowd fund.

Launched in 2009, crowd-funding platform Kickstarter has transformed the way many people start and finance their business or venture. In just seven years, 11 million people have backed a project, US$2.5 billion has been pledged, and 108,400 projects have been successfully funded.

One of those was Nura, a Melbourne company that’s on a mission to unite people through music with their world-first invention – headphones that sense and adapt to your hearing.

Here are three tips on how aspiring small business owners can start a business with Kickstarter:

#1. Be ready to go

Your product needs to be ready and you need to demonstrate that you’ve designed, tested and completed a compelling product. People won’t pledge their dollars if they don’t genuinely think you can deliver. Set up your page as you would a fully fledged website with images, infographics and stories explaining your product and what makes it special. You need to communicate your pitch clearly and make sure that people understand your vision quickly.

#2. Originality and innovation

If you want to be noticed, you need to bring a project to people that is genuinely new and fresh. Think about the problem your business solves, explain your intuitive solution and how it differs from current offerings. Only then will people recognise the value of what you’re doing.

#3. Know your market and costs

It is important to plan and do your research on who your user or audience will be and how many people you need to capture to reach your funding goal. Know your value proposition and tangible targets. This is a pre-sale platform after all! You need to make sure you have a handle on your manufacturing costs, production timeline, distribution and logistics so you don’t overextend yourself. If you don’t work this into your target correctly you’ll lose all your momentum, buzz and end up back at square one. Finally, make sure you are nimble enough to scale and demonstrate your commercial potential/intent after the campaign if all goes well.